Virus particles can float around in an elevator for 10 to 20 minutes, discovered researchers from the University of Amsterdam. They advise avoiding talking and coughing in the elevator.
If someone with corona coughs or talks in an elevator, aerosols can linger for up to 20 minutes, half an hour if the elevator doors are closed. The researchers demonstrated this by simulating coughing in an elevator. A laser then lit the aerosols so they could be counted.
A single cough can produce a few million droplets, talking loudly produces several hundred thousand droplets per minute. So you can ingest thousands of virus particles if you step into the elevator immediately after an infected person.
It is not clear whether you can actually become ill. This mode of transmission may lead to milder symptoms than direct contact with the virus. But to be on the safe side, the researchers recommend leaving the elevator doors open longer, wearing a mouth mask and avoiding coughing and talking in the elevator.
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